Sword Art Online: The Midnight Warrior
by DuelingFreak
Summary: Kirito was not the only person who made such an impression during the beta. Meet Kenta, another beater who isn't really a beater at all. Follow his life in Aincrad as he lends his abilities towards clearing the game. Follows the novel and anime but will omit out scenes and will have side-stories. OC wanted. Will try to update weekly.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One: First Step

I just stood there, frozen to the ground as Kayaba's GameMaster character vanished from the system. Sword Art Online, the first VRMMORPG and most highly anticipated game, just became a death game. I stared at my life bar, where almost two hours ago it was hovering in the red area. Had I taken one more hit by accident from a boar... I shuddered as I realized low close to death I was. Would it be a painful death? Probably not, the game doesn't simulate actual pain. No, I simply would have shattered into thousands of pieces, unaware that my brain was going to be fried for the miscalculation...

I shook my head and immediately ran back towards an inn where I rented a room for the night. Collapsing on the bed, I thought long and hard on what I wanted to do. I can simply just stay in the first floor, as I am sure countless of other people will do, in hope that one day other people can clear the game and I can avoid the risk of dying. It would be the safer route, and I have to live in order to resume my responsibility back in the real world...

…. But...

As a player from the beta, I have a responsibility here also. I have to use everything that I learned from the beta to guide the other people who wish to fight through the first eight levels at least. Besides, I can't really live with myself if I found out that many people died because they did not have the knowledge that I have earned from the beta.

With my resolution settled, the first thing to do is to find one of the only person I really got along with during the beta. She's a real pain to deal with but for the right price she should be able to get the job done. Besides, I can't recall an informant that has as reliable information as Argo the Rat.

30 Minutes Later...

As I sat on the bench waiting for the person to show up I noticed that there were a lot of scared people around the area. Most likely most of them are shocked as to what Kayaba had said, and I feel like the people that are still her are those that won't be joining up the cause to free the people anytime soon. Of course, with the idea of death being just outside the safe zone can cause many people to be hesitant in going out. In fact, I have a good guess that most of the beta testers will be sitting out for a long while, since not many of them were very experienced in the game. But hopefully we can gather enough people to fight our way through.

"Vendoo-kun!"

I sighed as Argo called out the nickname she gave me during the beta test. It was an annoying nickname, and part of the reason why I didn't want to deal with Argo often, but she really is the best at what she does, so I put up with it.

"It was an interesting request you made, forming a guide for helping out players using sword skills and training grounds, especially since you don't use sword skills much if at all..."

"Get to it Argo. What's your price?"

She smirked at this. "For you just 1500 col."

I sighed again as I made a trade offer for the requested amount. That was most of the col I had left after grinding and spending them on potions to stay alive, but if giving people information on how to beat the game get more people to join the front line, then it's worth every col.

"Thank you, Vendo. As promised the guide will be at every store tomorrow," she said before disappearing. I swear she does this to try to get me embarrassed.

As there are nothing else to do, I headed out towards the inn where one of the best quests for the next few floors exists. It is extremely useful for the one-handed blade user as the reward, the Anneal Blade, is arguably the best weapon you can get for the next two floors, and when fully upgraded can last up to floor 6 before considering a change in weapon. With that in mind I headed off towards Horunka Village, the location of the quest.

One thing about grinding at night is that the mobs become stronger. It might be because animals are not as scared at night time or something, but some people have nearly gotten killed because they stayed out too long and didn't notice the change. Being at level 5 already however gave me an edge against the enhanced mob and I dealt with them at ease as I headed out toward my destiny.

* * *

I am looking for OCs to include to this story. I will be using OCs of any variants from hero, villains, supporters, etc so please submit any OC you want. I can not guarantee every OC will be used but I shall do my best to incorporate as many OCs as needed. Please have the format something like the example although if you want to include extra information about your OC go ahead.

Sword Art Online OC Character:

Real Name: Kenya Hawagua

In-Game Name: Vendette (Nickname Midnight Warrior)

Beta Tester? Yes

Age: 19

Stat Focus: Speed and Strength

In-Game Status: Soloist, Clearer

Guild? No

Weapon: One-Handed Sword with Off-Hand Sword

Primary Weapon: Midnight's Edge. Dark blue blade with random streaks of black, light blue hilt and handle, edge of blade glitters like the stars.

Secondary Weapon (Optional): The Eclipse. Mix of dark orange and red blade, yellow handle and light red hilt.

Armor (Clothes, Light, Heavy): Light

Weapon Skill: One-Handed Sword, Martial Art

Battle Skill: Parry, Delay, Battle Healing, Light Metal Equipment, Light Shield Equipment, Armor Pierce

Non-Combatant Skill: Cooking

Passive Skills: Searching, Night Vision, Acrobatics

Fighting Style: Against non-players, he charges in with a fury of slashes and stabs to steal damage fast, then falls back and alternates between defense and offense. In PvP he charges in with high speed and uses slashes to either drive opponent back or force to defense, then assess the opponent's fighting style and adjusts accordingly. Prefers to dodge and parry as he does not have high STA and DEF. Good reflexes and tends to rely on his hunches at a spur of the moment. He doesn't use sword skills often as it feels unnatural to him, and he has martial art along with some throwing daggers as a secret weapon.

Appearance: Brown hair that covers his right eye and reaches down his neck. Black eyes and a square-jawed face. Wears a dark blue cloak with silver borderlines, black jacket, light blue undershirt with a picture of a full moon on it. Black gloves with a crescent moon on the back. For especially challenging tasks he has a dark blue set of light armor with black edges and a black shield with a star enigma.

Characteristic: He is considered the strong silent type person, but is actually shy of people (especially girls) and is nice towards anyone that doesn't strike him as a bad person. He is always willing to help people and even take days off to help out at the lower floors. He has a soft spot for kids and makes an effort to spend some time each day at an orphanage for the kids that somehow logged on to the death game. He doesn't like crowds and tries to not attract attention despite how he always does anyway. He is self-reliant due to his childhood and believes that he can do whatever he needs to do if he puts in enough effort.

Backstory: Oldest of 3, he often takes care of his brother and sister in place of his parents who were too busy to spend time with them. He grew into the brother/parent role and at age 15 took at job at the dojo he goes to to earn money and to get some time for himself. He uses the two-sword style of fighting and is familiar with hand-to-hand combat. He continued to take care of his brother and sister, making sure they get the best that they can. He won a spot at the beta testing from a competition and enjoyed taking a break from reality.

Life in SAO: During the beta, he learned the outlines of the game and quickly soared to one of the best players in the beta. He is well known for hardly using any sword skills as all as they seem unnatural to him to use unless the situation calls for it. He helps out people who ask for it but otherwise is a loner similar to life at school. After Kayaba announces the death game he decides to help out clear the game.

Of course, in the first few chapters the characters will be wearing standard armor and using weapons normally obtained as the levels are too low to start having custom weapons and armors on the spot. Also only 1-2 skills will be used as that is how many slots available during the first floors of the game. Please R&R and thank you ^^.


	2. Chapter 2

In the dark dungeon, nothing else can really be heard except the voice of a young man and the shattering sound of creatures being destroyed. Vendette panted as he went through another batch of Ruin Kobold Soldiers, a type of monsters that can be found in the dungeon of the first floor. It had been nearly a month since the announcement of the death game, and so far no one has found the boss room yet. He scowled as he recalled trying to locate the boss room a week ago to find out that the layout of the dungeon had changed, no doubt so beta players can't use this knowledge to go through the levels faster.

_What's the point of having the beta if things like this aren't even the same? _Ven thought for the umpteenth time as he executed a 3-slash combo on the weakened soldier, shattering into thousands of clear pixels. He found out earlier that while using the Sword Skills does have a larger output damage, the motions feel somewhat unnatural to him, and as a kendo fighter, unnatural feeling means unusable. Plus using powerful Sword Skills have large cooldown time where you are vulnerable to other monster, and as a solo player safety is the number one priority. Executing one of the only Sword Skill he feels he can use -Sonic Leap-, he charged at the closest Kobold Soldier and slammed his sword harshly on the enemy, depleting its health by over half. Evading the counter slash sent his way, he slashed at the feet twice before performing an uppercut, taking out the last of its health. A pop-up revealed that he was able to level up to level 10, a task not easy for him at all. Wiping off the imaginary sweat from his forehead, he decided to head out back towards Tolbana, the city where he is staying at. As he walked through the dungeon, he was slightly disheartened to see so few people grinding in the area. He questioned how many people will even have the capacity to fight the boss head-on.

_Well, guess we'll find out tomorrow_, Ven thought as he recalled the meeting that will be taking place tomorrow. Apparently, a group managed to find the boss room and are planning to get as many people as they can to help raid it. He shrugged, then winced as the setting sun blinded him temporarily. Once again he noted that Kayaba's inspection to detail was what made SAO one of the most anticipated game in history. Too bad, if it didn't become a death game Ven can see many people enjoying the marvelous creation to the fullest rather than cowering in fear of death.

-Next Day, at the meeting-

Ven arrived at the location of the meeting to see that surprising a decent amount of people showed up. Seeing how many people were scared of dying he anticipated less than 30 people showing up and yet there were already about 40 people waiting for the meeting to start. Leaning on a nearby he he materialized an apple from his inventory and munched on it as he waited for the meeting to start.

-About 20 minutes later-

"OK, let's get started people!" A man called out from center stage. He had a somewhat elegant look on his face, wearing bronze armor over his blue clothes. What made him stood out though was his blue hair. Perhaps he had gotten a rare item drop to change the hair color? But I don't recall such an item during the beta...

"Thank you all for coming today. My name is Diabel. I like to consider my "job" as a knight."

At this people laughed at. In Sword Art Online, there is no "job" that you get. In this game, you can level up your skills in a certain way that can "categorize" yourself as a class. For example, a person who can make a lot of weapon and armor for their skills can be considered a blacksmith. I wonder what he thinks classifies him as a knight.

Daibel suddenly held a serious face. "Today, my party found the boss room located at the top of the tower." This got everyone attention now. "We need to defeat the boss, reach the second floor, and tell everyone waiting in the town of the beginning that it is possible to beat this game. Everyone present here shares this duty! Do you all agree? Everyone in the crowd nodded and murmured their agreement. Then people starting clapping and cheering for the man.

"Ok! Then let us begin our planning. First off, divide yourselves into parties of 6. An ordinary party has no chance against a floor boss. We'll need to form a raid group using multiple parties."

At this point almost everyone got partied up. The only ones left out was a effeminate-looking male and a hooded figure. With no other choice, I called to the two to form a party of 3. Not very safe, but if it is what it takes to be in the raid then so be it. As I added the two people I was shocked for a moment as "Kirito" showed up as a party member. He also paused for a moment as he recognized my name. The second name, "Asuna", I didn't recognize. Probably wasn't a beta player. But what shocked me was that this second player is a girl. Not many female avatars are in games, and even fewer of them are actual girls. So when Kayaba used his "Hand Mirror" to show everyone's true faces I didn't think I'd see an actual female gamer here.

"Okay, have you formed your parties? Then..."

"Just one moment!"

My hair on my back stood up as an orange spiky-haired player hopped down towards the center stage. Something tells me this isn't good...

"My name's Kiabou." Yup, trouble ahead. The way he talked just screams out troublemaker. "I wanna say something before we take on the boss."

A moment of silence. Then "Some of you here need to apologize to the two thousand who have died so far!"

I scoffed. Obviously he was referring to the beta testers, like me and Kirito, who have knowledge of the game and the work-up of it. Of course, with some things being different, being a beta test before is almost moot besides knowing things like sword skills and training spots.

"On the day this stupid game started, the beta guys ditched us beginners, and they all disappeared. They took all the good hunting spots and easy quests for themselves. So only they could get stronger. And then, they just ignored the rest of us. I'm sure someone here was in the beta! They should get on their knees and apologize, and give up all the items and money they've hoarded. Otherwise, we can't trust them to protect us as party members, and they shouldn't trust us!"

This brought about a moment of silence. I noticed that Kirito looked concerned and was probably going to give in. So I did something no one expected.

I laughed. Loud.

"Now that's rich. Give up all their money? Their items? All just because you believe the two thousand people who died were abandoned?"

"Yeah! I'm guessing that you're a beta tester? So you going to drop all your stuff or what?" I scoffed. "Sorry porcupine, I'm not giving up anything."

"See! We can't trust you at all to help out! I bet you're going to stab us in the back and take the credit for yourself!"

"There's some flow in your so-called logic. First off, beta testers merely played the game before the release. Do you really think none of the 10000 testers were beginners at all? I can count the number of experienced MMORPG players with two hands, and have fingers left over. In fact," I paused for a moment as I manipulated my menu. "Did you know that out of the two thousand that died, almost fourteen thousand of them were the ones that died?"

This brought about murmurs throughout the crowd. But of course Kiabou was adamant. "I don't believe you! You're probably just lying!"

"Oh? Then I guess that 'Argo the Rat' is lying as well, seeing how she is the one who gave me the info," I mentioned as I set my menu to 'Visible to Players', showing the message that Argo sent me two days ago when I wondered about the death rate."

"Most likely it is because they were beta testers that they died, Kiabou. While things like sword skills and grinding spots are the same, layout of the map in general, and monster stats aren't the same. Not to mention, just because people didn't announce they are beta testers doesn't mean that they do not try to help beat the game." At this I turned to the audience.

"How many of you guys recognize me?" About a third of the people raised their hand.

"And how many of you guys I helped out in some way, shape or form?" About three hands fell from that. I turned to Kiabou, who was scowling.

"We are all trapped in this game. The only way out is to defeat all 100 floors and clear the game. Yes, I used my knowledge of the game to level up faster and get better items, but I do not plan to just sit out battles and make you guys do all the work."

I headed back to by spot, but paused for a moment. "Do all of you guys have a copy of the guide book right? The book was written by beta testers to help you guys through the game. The second version was written up by me personally." There people gasped. It was well known that the second version of the guide book had more in-depth information about sword skills, various mobs and how to fight them, and various quests and their rewards. It was an large update of information, some replacing information outdated from the original Sword Art Online."

"Now, let's resume the meeting."

The meeting ended soon afterward. Kirito went off to prepare himself for tomorrow while Asuna just headed off to town. After checking up on my inventory, I decided to head to town to stock up on potions as well.

* * *

Thank you to those that Submitted OC. They will unfortunately won't be used for a while as Ven is going to be soloing things but I promised they will be used before too long. I do want some more OC's to work with so anyone has any please message me. Thanks!


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